A Langmuir probe system incorporating the Boyd-Twiddy method for EEDF measurement applied to an inductively coupled plasma source

摘要

This paper reports on a modern implementation of a Langmuir probe method that was first proposed in the 1950s. The system directly measures the first and second derivative of the I-V characteristic and determines the EEDF. This probe offers many advantages over existing systems that rely on numerical differentiating and data smoothing techniques. In addition to the EEDF analysis the system also incorporates several theories to extricate the plasma parameters from the ion collection and electron retardation branches of the I-V characteristic.